Family

Genesis 2:7
He (God) breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.

This has been an incredible week for Vicki and I, as we have been able to spend time with our family. It has been a time of catching up, laying down the things of the daily grind, and just kick back for a while. As I sat at the table for our evening meal, I, once again, was brought to the place where I recognized that I have been blessed beyond measure.
Family......what an incredible invention from the mind of God.We were not created to be loners. To remain distant and separated. We were created to be united in mind and heart.
Separation comes from the mind of the evil one. If he can stir our hearts and appetites (fleshly/sin) then we will automatically seek to be a loner just through our independent mindset. "I don't need anyone or anything." But even in these thoughts, we still will seek out the company of others. The only problem with this is that we tend to be attracted to others who are in the same state as we are.

Beyond my blood family, God has seen fit to create a spiritual family.
Just as the Gen. 7 verse states, "Then the Lord God formed man".
God is in the process of forming our family at Vineyard ReCovery. It has been three years and three months since our birth and we still a babe, so to speak. But God not only formed us, but He breathed the breath of life into our group through the giving of His Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit of God that connects us and binds us together with a single purpose and vision.
It isn't my purpose....
It isn't my vision....
It is His. From this binding by the Holy Spirit, we are brought together to learn how to love each other. If it wasn't for God's Holy Spirit living in each of us, we would truly have no reason to hang out together. We are a diverse group. Different ages.....different vocations....we are just different. But to me, this is the real power that God possesses. A power that goes beyond human understanding that can bring together all people, no matter who they are. 

Seems as though there is a lot of human effort spent these days in celebrating our diversity.
When in fact, we need to celebrate our unity. Did you catch what I wrote? I didn't say our uniformity....where we all have to act the same, talk the same, look the same. But be unified in a like minded way, striving to reach a common goal that benefits everyone. Mankind is unable to produce such an animal. Only the giver of life, God, can bring together His creation.

Is VRC the perfect place. Heavens no! But we know all too well that we are a work in progress. We try to make allowances for each other as we all move toward a maturity in Christ. One of the things we strive for at VRC is to help each other to grow spiritually. As I've written in the past, the validation of any church is not found in the quantity of people it has, but in the quality of people it produces. 

We'll be moving on in Luke 5 tomorrow night at VRC. Come on out and join us if you are free and don't have anything to do. No...you don't have to be an addict or alcoholic to join us. In fact, if the truth were known, we're all suffering from the fall of man in the garden, aren't we? We are all trying to recover from this fall.

God on you...
mbb